The Bass Player » [cashton] √

0.9

[9th of November - Copenhagen]

Calum was back sound-checking with his band for the first time in what felt like forever; in reality, it had only been four days. And yet it was still a strange change of pace, but he had to admit he was somewhat grateful, the tension just built far too quickly between Ashton and him when they were on the same stage. That aside though it was kind of boring to go back to playing their guitar-heavy songs when he'd gotten used to playing such bass-heavy stuff. 

He autopiloted through their soundcheck, half falling asleep as it was. Ashton had come by his hotel the night before at some ungodly hour and, well, Calum hadn't been able to get to sleep until late. Speaking of Ashton, he was out in the chairs on his phone but watching, he and Calum had made it a habit of theirs to watch his band soundcheck together. Not that Calum had, had much choice, Ashton had just followed him there, it seemed that even though it had only been three soundchecks, Ashton was already stuck in his ways. It kind of embarrassed him to be watched in such broad daylight, but he knew telling the older man to go away wasn't going to achieve anything. 

Once they'd finished Calum asked Rachael to stay and watch Tempted Timeless' soundcheck with him, she agreed, and they sat cross-legged in the pit chattering away about nothing in particular as the other band sound checked. Angus was back on the Bass, and he looked a little haggard but not seriously unwell. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was sallow and a bit sunken in. He really didn't look that bad if you didn't know he'd been away sick you'd say he looked off and leave it at that. Calum and Rachael, however, were curious, after all, he'd missed three shows. He played lazily, but unless you knew anything about Bass you wouldn't be able to tell, and Calum guessed he couldn't really say much, that was pretty much how he'd played in his band's soundcheck. 

Before soundcheck was over, Calum excused himself and disappeared into a storeroom backstage. It was only ten minutes later that Ashton with a thin sheen of sweat let himself in and slotted a hand in between the short strands at the nape of his neck. 

"Like this shirt, s'nice," he told him, the other hand going down to the hem and playing with it gently. 

Calum like a desperately obsessed teenager told him, "You can have it if you want," he fought off the blush that wanted to break across his cheeks, and instead tried to act coolly indifferent.

Ashton chuckled, "mmm, maybe I'll take you up on it," leaning in to connect their lips. 

The door handle jiggled, and they both practically jumped back nearly knocking the shelving behind them, the turning stopped, and the door remained closed, but they both held their breath, afraid the door would come open at any moment. 

It didn't though, and they heard Luke's voice call out, "Angus, there you are! You disappeared right after soundcheck. Thought you might end up wandering off somewhere again," 

There was a long pause, and Calum imagined one of them must have been walking toward the other, or maybe Luke was following him down the hall. Neither Ashton nor he had moved an inch, still waiting with bated breath for them to move away from the door. 

"Oh fuck off Luke, just come out and say you think I'm gonna flake again," Angus almost shouted, Calum's eyes grew wide, and he moved his ear closer to the door, forgetting Ashton could see him. 

"Can you be quiet, people might hear you," Luke said in a loud whisper, "and flake isn't the word I'd use to describe a bender that caused a whole bunch of people to waste their valuable time looking for you," Calum could hear the anger and venom behind Luke's words and couldn't help but flinch, he could never have imagined the older man talking like that. 

"I didn't ask anyone to do that," 

"This isn't just about you, you self centred twat, there are so many people who are depending on working on this tour, the stagies, the venue staff, sound, lighting everyone! Not everything is about you and whatever you're going through, okay? This isn't the first time you've pulled this shit, either get help or get it together, my sympathy has completely run out," Luke's voice was rising in volume and severity, Calum reflexively pulled away from the door, his eyes darting quickly to Ashton who was watching him reserved concern showing on his face. 

Angus scoffed, "As if it matters you had that little Asian fuck on bass straight away,"

"You're so lucky that Calum was nice enough to cover, a shitload of people would have been so angry with us if we'd cancelled, so don't talk about him like that. And you watch yourself around the others, they don't need to know about this," Luke said firmly. 

"I'm sick of you telling me what to do-"

"I don't care; this isn't all going to go to shit because of you, come on, you can sit in the dressing room until we go on,"

Then footsteps could be heard receding, and a muffled yell of 'I told you not to tell me what to do'. 

Calum's heart was beating fast in his chest, the feeling that Luke was going to reef the door open and turn on him for eavesdropping. He let out a shaky breath and turned to face Ashton again, "I feel like I was not supposed to hear that,"  

"He's been like this for years now, always disappears, he's not even the bass player on albums, it's a friend of ours because he always seems to be 'unavailable' when we're writing and recording," Ashton told him, using air quotes. 

"Shouldn't you have gotten rid of him by now?" Calum asked, his brow furrowing. 

Ashton stepped forward placing his hands on the other's hips, "When you've known someone for nearly 17 years it gets kind of hard to stop giving them second chances and trying to see the best in them. Michael and I try to ignore it as much as we can but, Luke still believes he'll turn it around," 

Calum fought the urge to press himself into Ashton and instead placed his hands gently on his chest, "Doesn't sound like he believes in him much anymore," he said quietly. 

"Everyone has their limits I guess," he shrugged, letting his arms snake around his waist. 

"I don't really wanna do anything right now," Calum said quietly, not making eye contact with Ashton, "I feel weirded out by this, I don't know why,"

"That's all good," he let his hands loosen and drop to give a little squeeze to his arse before letting go entirely, "let's go get something to eat."